1. How do Individual Values (IV) work?
We consider the example of Mewtwo. Mewtwo’s base statistics are (from https://pokemon.gameinfo.io/fr/pokemon/150-mewtwo):
Mewtwo
Base_ATT
300
Base_DEF
182
Base_HP
214
The attack statistic defines the damages your Pokémon will do, the defence statistic defines the speed at which your Pokémon will die, the HP is your Pokémon’s Health Points.
Assume you are very lucky, and you caught a perfect Mewtwo, with (ATT_IV, DEF_IV, HP_IV) = (15, 15, 15). Your perfect Mewtwo based stats are:
Base_ATT + ATT_IV
315
Base_DEF + DEF_IV
197
Base_HP + HP_IV
229
Depending on the level of your Pokémon, you will multiply all these stats by a coefficients given in the following table:
Level 20 Level 25 Level 30 Level 35 Level 40
0.5974 0.667934 0.7317 0.76156384 0.7903
This table tells that: at level 25, your Pokemon is at 84.5% of its capacity; at level 30, your Pokemon is at 92.6% of its capacity; at level 35, your Pokemon is at 96.4% of its
capacity. Coming back to Mewtwo, if you level up it to level 30, its statistics are finally:
ATT = (ATT + ATT_IV) at level 30
230
DEF = (DEF + DEF_IV) at level 30
144
HP = (HP + HP_IV) at level 30
167
CP formula is:
CP = floor
ATT×
DEF×HP
10
= floor
230×
144×167
10
= 3566
2. How to measure the bulkiness of a Pokémon?
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We use the effective health (EH) defined by : EH ∝ DEF × HP. The higher the score is, the bulkier the Pokémon is. For instance:
Tangrowth Exeggutor (A)
Base_ATT
207
230
Base_DEF
184
153
Base_HP
225
216
Tangrowth’s base Effective Health is 184×225 = 41400, whereas Exeggutor (A)’s base Effective Health is 153×216 = 33048.
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However, it is also interesting to consider resistances when it comes to compare Pokémon.
Double vulnerability ×0.39
Vulnerability ×0.63
Normal ×1
Simple Resistance ×1.6
Double Resistance ×2.56
If we use these two Pokémon versus Kyogre (Waterfall + Hydro Pump), Tangrowth’s base Effective Health is 41400×1.6 = 66240, whereas Exeggutor (A)’s base Effective
Health is 33048×2.56 = 84602.88. Therefore, Exeggutor (A) will be more resistant versus Kyogre (Hydro Pump) than Tangrowth.
3. How to compute the damage realised by a Pokémon?
The damage a Pokémon will do to its opponent is given by:
Damage formula = floor
1
2
Power ×
ATT
OPP_DEF
× Multiplier
+ 1
To illustrate this formula we consider an Exeggutor (A) perfect at level 30 launching Solar Beam to a Kyogre at level 40.
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floor () + 1 guarantees that the minimum damage of any attack is 1.
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Power is the power of the considered move, for Solar Beam, it is 180.
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ATT is the giver’s attack statistic. For instance, for Exeggutor (A) at level 30 with 15 as IV_ATT, it would be (230+15)×0.7317 = 179.
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OPP_DEF is the opponent’s defense statistic. For instance, for Kyogre at level 40 with 15 as IV_DEF, it would b e (228+15)×0.7903 = 192.
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Multipliers could be STAB, WAB, FAB and Effectiveness.
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STAB is an acronym for Same Type Attack Bonus. If a Pokemon uses a move that matches one of its types, then the attack damage gets a ×1.2 multiplier.
▶
WAB is an acronym for Weather Attack Bonus. If a Pokemon uses a move that matches one of the boosted types in the current weather, then the attack gets a ×1.2
multiplier, same as that of STAB.
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FAB is an acronym for Friendship Attack Bonus. Friend bonuses are 3%, 5%, 7% or 10% depending on your level of friendship.
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Effectiveness refers to the multiplier applied to using a "super effective" or "not very effective" move.
Not very effective (at all!) ×0.39
Not very effective ×0.63
Normal ×1
Super effective ×1.6
(Super!) super effective ×2.56
Under no weather boost, no friendship bonus, the damages Exeggutor will do to Kyogre are:
Damage formula = floor
1
2
Power ×
ATT
OPP_DEF
× Multiplier
+ 1 = floor
1
2
180 ×
179
192
× 1.2 × 1.6
+ 1 = 161 + 1 = 162 HP
4. Which moves to choose for a Pokemon?
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Each Pokemon has a fast move and a charged move. Both together define the damages the Pokémon will realise.
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Each move is defined by the damage it realises, its duration and the energy it generates (for fast moves) or uses (for charged moves).
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Charged move energies are defined by the number of bars:
energy of 33.33 energy of 50 energy of 100
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The goal is then to choose the best moves that realise the most damages per second. We consider the example of Metagross: is Meteor Mash or Flash Cannon more
interesting? From https://pokemon.gameinfo.io, we get the following table:
Meteor Mash Flash Cannon
Base damage 100 100
Move duration 2600 ms 2700 ms
Damage window 2300 - 2500 ms 1600 - 2500 ms
Energy -50 -100
DPS 38.5 37
EPS -19.2 -37
DPS is the damage per second for this move (= Base damage/Move duration), whereas EPS is the energy used per second (= Base damage/Energy).
Both attacks realise 100 as base damage, and have similar Move duration. However Meteor Mash needs less energy than Flash Cannon; a player will launch two Meteor
Mash for one Flash Cannon, and realise twice more damage in the same time. This is reflected in the EPS.
Therefore, Meteor Mash is much more interesting than Flash Cannon.
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We usually compute the global and neutral DPS for each couple (fast, charge) to see the number of damage per second the Pokémon realises by combining its fast and
charged moves. Computation is complex, as it needs to consider also the damage realised by the opponent which brings energy to the giver. The DPS must also consider
"Same Type Attack Bonus" (STAB, 25% damage boost of a move when it is the same type as one of the types of the Pokémon using the move).
How DPS is computed? Comprehensive DPS/TDO spreadsheet
For Metagross, DPS of (Bullet Punch, Meteor Mash) is much higher than DPS of (Bullet Punch, Flash Cannon):
Pokemon Fast Move Charged Move DPS TDO DPS
3
× TDO CP
Metagross Bullet Punch Meteor Mash 17.983 621.7 3615.5 3791
Metagross Bullet Punch Flash Cannon 13.563 468.9 1 169.7 3791
5. Which Pokemon to choose for levelling up?
They must be chosen based on their:
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Damage Per Second (DPS) defined by their fast and charged move: it represents how much damage a Pokémon can make in a second.
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Effective Health (EH) is computed via the formula (at level 40):
EH = (base DEF + DEF_IV)× (base HP + HP_IV) ×
0.7903
2
900
▶
Total Damage Output (TDO) represents how much damage a Pokémon can make before it faints. It is computed via TDO = DPS × EH
▶
DPS
3
× TDO, a mathematical measure without any physical sense, that can help to order Pokémon.
Comprehensive DPS/TDO spreadsheet
For instance, if we compare the two best Ghost-type Pokémon:
Pokemon Fast Move Charged Move DPS TDO DPS
3
× TDO CP
Gengar Lick Shadow Ball 18.109 350.4 2080.9 2878
Giratina (Origin Forme) Shadow Claw Shadow Ball 15.814 662.8 2621.4 3683
Gengar has a monstrous DPS, but low TDO, whereas Giratina (O) has excellent EH and TDO. The global measure DPS
3
× TDO recommends Giratina (O).
Note also that weaknesses are not taken in this spreadsheet, as we compute the neutral DPS. If we choose "Mewtwo" with (Confusion, Psychic) as opponent, the spreadsheet
becomes:
Pokemon Fast Move Charged Move DPS TDO DPS
3
× TDO CP
Gengar Lick Shadow Ball 27.547 194.4 4063.3 2878
Giratina (Origin Forme) Shadow Claw Shadow Ball 26.415 641.9 11829.9 3683
DPS has increased by ≈ 1.6 (as Mewtwo is weak to Ghost attacks), but Gengar’s TDO has also decreased (due to Mewtwo’s statistics and moves, and Gengar’s psychic
weakness) at the same time, making it not viable.
6. How difficult are Raid bosses?
Raid boss have the attack and defend statistics of a perfect level 40 Pokémon, but their HP depends on the difficulty of the raid:
Difficulty HP Time
600 HP 180s
1,800 HP 180s
3,600 HP 180s
9,000 HP 180s
(Legendary) 15,000 HP 300s
(Mewtwo) 22,500 HP 300s
For example, Kyogre’s base statistics are:
Kyogre
Base_ATT
270
Base_DEF
228
Base_HP
205
As a raid boss, they will be:
Kyogre
ATT
225
DEF
192
HP 15,000 HP
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Damages realised by the raid boss are identical to a Pokémon level 40 with ATT_IV = 15.
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For a 5-head boss, you must realise 15000/300 = 50 HP per second; same damage to realise per second for a 4-head boss. The main difficulty of a 5-head boss is that it
has more HP, and therefore you will need more time, more Pokémon and more revives.
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Difficulty of a raid boss will mainly depends on the boss defence statistic (the higher is defense is, the more time you will need to defeat it).
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You need to play on resistance of your Pokémon, if you want to use less potion to defeat it
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You need to play on the boss vulnerability, if you want to defeat it faster.
7. How are IV important? What is the optimal level for a Pokémon?
Regarding IVs, they depend on the Pokémon base statistics.
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If the Pokémon has an important base attack statistic, there will be no difference between ATT_IV = 14 and ATT_IV = 15.
It is recommended to that a high ATT_IV for Pokémon with low DPS.
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Regarding to bulkiness (DEF_IV and HP_IV), the defence statistic influences how fast your Pokémon will die, whereas the HP statistic tells you the total number of HP
your Pokémon will have. Usually, it is more interesting to have a higher DEF_IV than HP_IV.
It is recommended to that a high DEF_IV and HP_IV for Pokémon with low Effective Health.
The more you want to level up your Pokémon, the more expansive it will be. Level 35 is fine (where your Pokémon is at 96.4% of its capacity), but level 30 is good too (92.6% of
its capacity).
Level 20
28
−−−−−→
31,000
Level 25
38
−−−−−→
44,000
Level 30
64
−−−−−→
62,000
Level 35
118
−−−−−→
88,000
Level 40
There is an ideal level depending on each Pokémon and its opponent:
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above a certain level, it will not be more resistant (its oponent will be able to inflige a certain number of fast and charged attacks until your Pokémon dies). It is called the
bulkpoint.
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above a certain level (usually different from the bulkpoint), your Pokémon fast attack will do exactly the same damage (it’s due to the floor in the damage formula). It is
called the breakpoint.
For levelling up a Pokémon after level 35, if base stat ≈ 125, the difference between an IV 15 and an IV 14 is one level. If base stat ≈ 265, the difference between an IV 15 and
an IV 14 is one half-level.
